


Si Veo a tu Mamá

by judgement_xxRx



Series: hago lo k me da la gana [1]
Category: K-pop, NCT (Band)
Genre: M/M, Post-breakup, ambiguous ending, quarantine spiralling
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-29
Updated: 2020-03-29
Packaged: 2021-03-01 05:28:16
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,223
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23370001
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/judgement_xxRx/pseuds/judgement_xxRx
Summary: Y si veo a tu mamá, eyYo le pregunto por tiPa' ver si ya tienes a alguienAlguien que te haga feliz
Relationships: Moon Taeil/Suh Youngho | Johnny
Series: hago lo k me da la gana [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1680865
Comments: 2
Kudos: 7





	Si Veo a tu Mamá

Taeil turned the phone off, crossing his arms and exhaling deeply. Ignoring the stream of buzzing notifications from his friends, he stared into the dark that stretched beyond the parking lot of the dimly lit convenience store. A half hour left till he could clock out. The next employee on shift often came late but he didn’t give a shit enough to wait them out tonight.  
He tapped his foot to the anachronistic R&B drifting softly through the store as his mind wandered through a mental checklist of what work he had completed already. He did not intend to have the memory of a neglected assignment ambush him in the middle of shots with the boys tonight. He picked his phone up again to scroll one last time through his school group chats when the bell over the door rang. Taeil barely glanced at the customer before skimming back over his messages and concluding that if he had anything he had not done at this point, it was above him now. He set his phone down again, scanning the scant aisles to locate the customer, only to catch sight of Johnny’s too-familiar face glancing back at him from the drinks.  
Taeil paused visibly before smiling awkwardly at his ex. Johnny’s face smoothed into a relief that Taeil had not been expecting. Taeil turned to fiddle with the cigarettes behind him, collecting his thoughts. Behind him, he heard the rustle of snacks on the counter. He faced Johnny, who was beaming forcefully at him and setting down a six-pack. Taeil gave him a small smile in return, braced for Johnny’s unstoppable cheeriness even at midnight in the stale air of a convenience store that was twenty minutes’ walk from his place, had few of the non-GMO snacks he preferred, and happened to be the workplace of his ex-boyfriend of six months.  
Taeil glimpses the time on his phone, going off in another flurry of notifications, while scanning Johnny’s snacks. Another twenty before he’d see freedom, but who would give a fuck if he clocked out right after this?  
“It’s really good to see you again,” Johnny begins. Taeil nods.  
“It’s good to see you too, man,” earnestly. It really is. Johnny’s smile fades.  
“How are things?” He asks.  
“Really good except I wanna head out already,” Taeil responds. Johnny nods, sympathetic.  
“It’s not that busy around now, huh?” as if he hadn’t often kept the other man company during Taeil’s graveyard shifts.  
Taeil only eyes him in consideration. He finishes ringing up his things, chewing carefully over his next words.  
“Twenty forty-five. Did you talk to my mom?”  
Johnny winces. Taeil shakes his head, handing him a bag.  
“I don’t mind, Johnny,” he says, watching him pay and gather his things, “How are you?”  
Johnny looks around the store, hesitant as never before.  
“I was just asking her how you were, but I’m gladder to ask you”  
Taeil only smiles softly, “You didn’t answer my last question”  
He hesitates again before finally responding, “I think I’m fine”  
Taeil laughs aloud at this, abrupt in the still of the store, “You think?”  
Johnny shrugs sheepishly, “I’m pretty good. For the start of the term, I mean”  
Taeil nods to the bag of snacks, “My mom told me you were looking kind of skinny but I’m glad to know you’re remedying that, at least”  
His screen, which had calmed the past minutes, suddenly lights up with a Grindr notification in his peripheral. He ignores it as Johnny responds mournfully, “Someone’s mom is always saying I could use fattening”  
“Skeletal muscle to them is synonymous with skeleton maybe,” Taeil ponders.  
“You said you were doing something later?” Johnny probes suddenly.  
“I did not,” Taeil responds dryly, admitting, “But I will be, yeah”  
“Oh” he looks around again, nervous. His eyes quickly pass over Taeil’s cell phone.  
“So I guess I’ll… head out of here,” he chuckles nervously. Taeil looks past him, the empty lot and the vast, cold evening backdropping his lone figure.  
“Stay,” Taeil commands him evenly, “I clock out soon enough and you’d be walking way too far”  
“It’s not a problem, Taeil,” Johnny insists.  
“Stay. Play with your phone then if you’re too scared to talk to me,” he picks his own phone up to cut off any arguments. Johnny only sighs and fiddles with his phone, leaning against the counter. He glances at Taeil quickly before his gaze skitters back to the parking lot.  
“I’m not scared to talk to you,” he mumbles.  
“What?” Taeil turns off his phone, pocketing it, finished pretending to be busy with anything but this.  
“I’m not scared to talk to you,” Johnny enunciates. He’s quiet again before he says, “I’m scared to see where you’re at without me” He looks back at the other man, searching Taeil’s gaze. Taeil leans forward, hands splayed against the counter surface.  
“Do you think I’m dying without you?” Taeil prods, as if picking a still-bloody scab.  
“No!” Johnny stands to his full height, facing the other man with his hands on the counter, inches from Taeil’s.  
“I thought _I_ was dying without you,” he defends.  
“And you were hoping I was rotting with you?” Taeil suggests.  
“No!” Johnny repeats. Hesitates. Taeil is peering up at him knowingly. If anyone had told him a year ago that those gentle eyes could be so sharp...  
“Maybe a little,” he confesses, looking down at his own hands before him, fingers curled and somehow more childlike for it than Taeil’s smaller hands.  
Taeil’s phone notifies him of the ten minutes till his shift’s end, sparing Johnny some respite from his scrutiny. He spots the next employee pulling up, miraculously on time for once. He sighs, an uncomfortable blend of relief and frustration. He hurriedly clocks out, wordlessly leading Johnny to his own car, silently waving to the other guy.  
He stares through the windshield, though the car’s started, radio playing softly. He looks at Johnny, still staring ahead. He meets his eyes.  
“I was dying a little, too,” he whispers. Johnny’s eyes widen slightly, hope quickly dashed as Taeil continues, “But I had just started living again”  
He collects himself, waiting for some response. Receiving none, he puts the car into reverse and pulls out the lot. They’re on the road when Johnny finally answers in a tired, diminished voice, “I guess I could try to do that too,” he swallows visibly, “It just doesn’t seem worth it. Without you”  
Taeil only glances at him before he looks back towards the road ahead.  
“What good is your life if you’re only worried about fitting someone else into it?”  
They arrived at Johnny's apartment in silence. Johnny gathers his things muttering a good night. A vision of his upcoming evening flashes briefly through his mind, tearfully wasted, ignoring what films his roommates had chosen, and eating the party size Cheetohs by himself to the irritation of the others. He sighs, grabbing the handle when Taeil starts, “Johnny…”  
He pauses, looking back expectantly.  
“Stop waiting for my permission to be happy,” he tells him simply, “I love you, so I want for you to be happy”  
He leans over to peck Johnny on the cheek, and Johnny only stares at him with the memory of more on his skin before he leaves the car behind him.

**Author's Note:**

> take care! support each other thru these trying times! unionize the workplace and living places! rent strikes are good for the soul!


End file.
